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ActionSA expresses outrage following the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)’s abrupt decision to withdraw the corruption charges against Former Minister and ANC MP, Zizi Kodwa, who was accused of accepting a R1.7 million bribe in exchange for influencing the awarding of lucrative government contracts. 

ActionSA will formally write to the National Director of Public Prosecution, Advocate Shamila Batohi, to review this decision and request a record of the decision that led to this sudden reversal, especially given the NPA's earlier utterances in late July expressing confidence in a guilty verdict for the charges.

This sudden about-turn raises obvious questions about what could have driven the NPA to withdraw the charges, which ActionSA believes reflects growing concerns about either a lack of prosecutorial diligence or, more troublingly, the possibility of deliberate mishandling in cases involving high-profile individuals.

Importantly, one would ordinarily expect that before deciding to prosecute a case of this nature, particularly given the profile of the accused, the NPA, whose record has been subject to warranted scrutiny, would ensure thorough preparation before even contemplating criminal charges. This then begs the question of what exactly informed this outrageous decision, which they are vaguely excusing as 'due to new developments'. 

ActionSA is prepared to pursue all available legal avenues if necessary to challenge this matter and will ensure that the NPA accounts for this decision, which frankly represents yet another failure by the NPA to prosecute state capture-related cases. 

ActionSA would argue that, given the cloud of corruption surrounding the Minister responsible for overseeing the NPA, namely Justice Minister Thembi Simelane, there are doubts about the NPA’s commitment to ensuring that justice is inescapable even for the political elite.

Issued by ActionSA Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip